Office of State Finance Undergoes Name Change
As Part of Expanded Role in State Government

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Office of State Finance is no more—now it's the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, effective Friday, Aug. 24.

"This name change reflects our agency’s expanded role under a 2011 consolidation law that folded four other important agencies into the OSF," said Secretary of Finance Preston L. Doerflinger, who worked with legislative sponsors and the administration of Gov. Mary Fallin on the government modernization effort.

Although the name change did not take effect until Friday, the four agencies became part of the OSF a year ago. They were the Department of Central Services, the Office of Personnel Management, the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board and the Employees Benefits Council.

"This has been an enormous undertaking that has improved services and saved taxpayers millions of dollars, and we’re just getting started," Doerflinger said. "We have several projects in the works, including those that will improve state government transparency.

"The cornerstone of our efforts is to create an agency that is FAST—flatter, agile, streamlined and technology-driven. We have made many strides toward that objective."

The Office of Management and Enterprise Services, or the OMES, will have eight divisions. The core Administrative Division will continue to be located at the State Capitol, where the OSF has performed budget and revenue reporting functions since it was created in 1947 as the Budget Division of the Executive Branch.

Carol McFarland has been serving as interim director of the OSF since Doerflinger agreed earlier this year to fill in as interim director of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services on a temporary basis. Doerflinger will return to the finance agency when a permanent director of the OKDHS is named.

McFarland was earlier chosen by Doerflinger to be transition project manager for the consolidation project. She said she also is pleased by the streamlining progress.

"We’ve already found millions of dollars in savings, while improving services to the public, state agencies and employees," McFarland said.

Among the divisions of the OMES is the Information Services Division, which also is headed by a cabinet-level official, Alex Pettit, the state's first chief of information technology.

Other sub-groups of the OMES include the Central Purchasing Division and the Division of Capital Assets Management, which formerly were parts of the Department of Central Services.

Also, the Budget, Policy and Communications Division; the Employees Group Insurance Division (formerly the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board); the Division of Central Accounting and Reporting, and Human Capital Management, which incorporates the former Employees Benefits Council and was formerly known as the Office of Personnel Management.

The Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board Adopts New Rates for 2013

Oklahoma City-The Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board (OSEEGIB) adopted premium rates for its HealthChoice health, dental, life and disability insurance plans at its August 17 meeting. These will be effective for the 2013 Plan Year.

Board Chairman Cody Graves said, “Considering the tight budgets that so many of our participating employers and members are struggling with, we felt it was important to do as much as we could to keep premium increases to a minimum. Nationally, many employer health plans are seeing increases of 7 to 10 percent; the board is very pleased that plan reserve dollars were sufficient to keep health plan premium increases to a little over 3 percent. Additionally, premiums for the HealthChoice Medicare Supplement plan, which covers over 33,000 retired teachers and state employees, will decrease by approximately 5 percent.”

Frank Wilson, the plan administrator, noted that the plan had only a 1.5 percent rate increase for 2011 and no increase for the 2012 plan year.

“We have been fortunate to have had three consecutive years where costs increases have been less than actuarial forecasts,” said Wilson adding that, “the board and administration are very sensitive to the impact of health care costs on the State of Oklahoma and its public employees. We work very hard to find ways to keep costs as low as possible to ensure that the 165,000 public employees and their families that depend on this health plan receive the best possible value for their health care dollar.”

For 2013, the board is using $48 million in available plan reserve dollars to off-set projected cost increases.

For the HealthChoice dental plan, premiums will increase by 3.8 percent and the annual policy maximum will increase from $2,000 to $2,500. Premiums for the HealthChoice Basic and Supplemental Life Insurance Plans and the HealthChoice Disability Plan will remain unchanged.

The 2013 premium rates were calculated by the board’s actuary, Aon Hewitt Consulting.